The association between astrology and medicine may make some of our contemporary doctors or those loyal to scientific rigor and the laws of chemistry and biology smile, but there was a time when, in order to heal, attention was paid to influences and motions. of planets and stars, as the human body was considered a miniature replica of our solar system: each anatomical part found a correspondence with a sign and a planet.

Today the disease, even in natural cures with a strong holistic vision, is seen as the result of a set of factors , coming not so much from the “sky”, but from a wrong lifestyle, from genetic predispositions or from the fact of being born in one place rather than another, as well as from educational, social, environmental components, etc. However, the astrological factor is still considered today, especially as regards the psychosomatic aspects of disorders: in principle, people of the same sign tend to have problems with the same organs , according to a recurring pattern, outlined by the Ancients and called, ” man of the zodiac “.

Medical astrology and the zodiacal man

The Chaldeans, considered by many to be the fathers of astrology, believed that there was a correspondence between macrocosm and microcosm . To everything that happened on earth there corresponded a celestial event, which was the cause. Illness was also regarded as a disharmony between the body and cosmic influences .

In Egypt the priestly caste was the custodian of scientific and technical knowledge: the priests were excellent astronomers, astrologers and doctors and were able to diagnose diseases and establish their treatments , with respect to celestial influences and motions. And it was the Egyptians, the first to outline what we know today as Medical Astrology (dynasties XVIII-XXVI, about 1580-525 BC), based on the concept of the Zodiacal Man . This theory was based on the belief that each Sign of the Zodiac governed very specific anatomical parts, according to the following scheme:

• Aries – head;
• Taurus – throat;
• Gemini – shoulders;
• Cancer – stomach;
• Leo – heart;
• Virgo – intestine;
• Libra – kidneys;
• Scorpio – genital organs;
• Sagittarius – thighs;
• Capricorn – knees;
• Aquarius – ankles;
• Pisces – feet

In Rome, this scheme appeared for the first time in the most ancient Latin treatise on astrology: ” Astronomica” , by Marco Manilius (1st century BC) . Divided into 5 books, this work took up concepts deriving from Egyptian and Greek culture, above all the theory of “ universal sympatheia ”, based on the intrinsic link that unites the things of the universe to each other, as expressions of an organic whole. In particular, the fourth book analyzes the zodiac signs and their influence on the human body.

In the second century d. C, Claudius Ptolemy writes the Tetrabiblos, considered the fundamental text of Western classical astrology . And it is precisely Ptolemy who gives us useful information regarding astrological medicine (or iatromathematica ): “If in fact the degrees of the horizon are injured, in whatever sign they find themselves, this will threaten that part of the body over which they preside and show from which defect or illness such member will be afflicted. The planets will indicate above all the causes and natures of such diseases ”. (Book III). So at the level of diagnosis, the Zodiac Sign will indicate the affected anatomical part and the type of disease, while thePlanet will enlighten us on the triggering cause of the disease .

Galen ( 130-200 AD), the greatest physician of antiquity after Hippocrates took up again the Hippocratic Doctrine of the Four Humors, deepening some aspects and completing it from the astrological point of view: associating four planets to the previous correspondences. In fact, he argued that Saturn ruled black bile because it was associated with T erra ; the Moon to the lymph because it corresponds to the element Water ; Mars to yellow bile because it is associated with Fire ; Jupiter in the air, corresponding toSa ngue . In his theory, the organs of the human body, as well as plants , are made up of the mixture of these  four elements, (fire, earth, air and water) and their qualities (hot / dry, hot / humid, cold / dry, cold / humid), and therefore undergo  planetary influences . This correspondence forms the link between the human body, herbal medicine and the universe .

Plants and asters

The plants, and the therapy associated with them, were part of the scheme outlined so far: being part of the cosmos, each plant species had a link with a body organ on earth and with a planet in the sky and of this link it brought back a trace, a ” sign ”In its form, because as we have said, there is a correspondence between all things , as Nature is a single living organism , made up of several parts, just as the human body is.  

From stars to animals, from animals to plants, from these to stones, up to the organs that make up our organism, there is a link, signaled precisely by an imprint or “signature” (sign) , which binds together all the things belonging of the same nature or performing the same functions . For this reason, a plant with parts resembling human organs, according to this theory, is useful for treating or supporting those organs.

We have to wait for the arrival of Paracelsus (1493 – 1541), who claimed that the doctor should absolutely not neglect the “form of the simple” (the term used to indicate plants in those times), for this therapeutic technique to take the form of a medical doctrine in all respects: the ” Theory of Signatures “, already used throughout the Middle Ages to associate plants with the organs to be treated . In the book “Paramirur de medica industry” (1521) Paracelsus insists on the correspondences that bind man to nature ( stone-plant-organ-planet ) and develops the concept of the firmament inside the individual , which is made up of the same planets as the outer firmament. According to this principle, both pathologies and herbs have their own astral identity , because each astrum governs and presides over each remedy , each plant and each organ.